Jimmy Carter Supports Whistle-Blower Edward Snowden

Jimmy Carter is giving his support to whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

“[Edward Snowden] has obviously violated the laws of America, for which he is responsible, but I think the invasion of human rights and American privacy has gone too far,” former US president Jimmy Carter told CNN. “I think that the secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the long term, beneficial. I think the American people deserve to know what their Congress is doing.”

His views on invasion of privacy echoed the New York Times op-ed that he wrote a year prior, criticizing the US’s human rights abuses: "Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended. […]

“In addition to American citizens’ being targeted for assassination or indefinite detention, recent laws have canceled the restraints in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to allow unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications. […]

“As concerned citizens, we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms that we had officially adopted as our own and cherished throughout the years.”